Sky Deutschland, the German pay-TV group, is giving Star Wars geeks the ultimate Christmas present.
From Dec. 1-14, the broadcaster is turning its Sky Hits digital channel into Sky Star Wars HD, programming all six Star Wars films, as well as Star Wars-themed featurettes and documentaries, on a 24-hour loop. All Sky subscribers in Germany and Austria will have access to the round-the-clock Lucas-palooza.
“We all know that for Star Wars fans it is too long to wait till Dec. 18, 2015 (for the launch of the upcoming Star Wars: Episode VII),” said Sky Deutschland VP of programming, Gary Davey, adding he hoped the 24/7 Star Wars channel would make the wait “a bit sweeter.”
The round-the-clock channel was made possible via a deal with Disney and Lucasfilm, which control the rights to the Star Wars movies.
Sky Star Wars HD will show all six Star Wars feature films on a loop in their narratively-correct order, starting with 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace through to the 1983 classic Star Wars: Episode VI – The Return of the Jedi.
In between the films, the channel will air a total of 20 behind-the-scenes featurettes on the making of all six movies as well as two Star Wars documentaries from Emmy-winner Kevin Burns: Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy (2004), and 2007’s Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed.
Sky Deutschland is Germany’s largest pay-TV company, reaching around 3.8 million subscribers in Germany and Austria. This summer, Britain’s BSkyB agreed to pay Rupert Murdoch’s 21st Century Fox $9.1 billion for its majority stake in Sky Deutschland and all of Italian operator Sky Italia to create Europe’s largest pay-TV group with 20 million customers.
